Chapter 126: The Westeros Alliance

Around noon, Jonathan Friedman, Pat Kinsley, and others arrived in New York one after another, beginning their discussions on how to handle the current situation.

Despite Simon's operation closely mirroring the S&P 500 index curve for more than five months being almost magical, it was completely within the rules from start to finish. James Redfield judged that it was precisely because Simon's trading records were too obvious and devoid of loopholes that major institutions resorted to wiretapping and leaked Westeros Corporation's trading information to the media, thereby forcing Simon to expose flaws.

In this era, the budget of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is only $100 million annually.

The $1.6 billion huge sum, enough to squeeze someone into the top 100 of the Forbes global rich list, is worth using every means by the major institutions.

For someone like Simon, who virtually had no significant background, proving any irregularity in Westeros Corporation's transactions would definitely lead to a hefty fine from the authorities, and Simon could end up losing even his initial capital.

After Simon and Janet arrived in New York at the end of October, they booked the presidential suite at the Plaza Hotel, and it was unclear when exactly the listening devices were installed. However, since Westeros Corporation's operations were free of irregularities, the eavesdroppers could not have discovered the information they sought.

At four o'clock in the afternoon, in order to avoid continuously evading the media leading to an uncontrollable public opinion, Pat Kinsley, acting as the spokesperson, held a brief press conference on behalf of Simon, publicly confirming Westeros Corporation's series of operations in the futures market while denying rumors that Simon was under investigation for insider trading.

The attention garnered by a Hollywood genius director suddenly becoming a billionaire was explosive, and a simple press conference could naturally not satisfy the media's appetite.

Following this, the reporters gathered outside Simon's Upper East Side apartment not only didn't decrease but grew in number, even affecting traffic on Fifth Avenue at one point. Countless interview requests were also delivered to Simon through various channels.

Meanwhile, the North American stock markets today also reacted directly to the exposés by media outlets like The New York Times. In just one day, a new term quickly spread among countless stock market investors: the Westeros Combo.

The stock market crash had passed, and no matter how much people admired and envied Simon Westeros' operations from months ago, they couldn't go back in time to mimic or follow them. However, it was very easy to follow this young man's trades in the stock market.

Although it was unclear why Simon Westeros was buying large amounts of tech stocks, for a young man who had just made over a billion dollars in the futures market, his buying operations definitely carried more weight than any stock broker's recommendation by a hundredfold.

The Wall Street Journal detailed a list of 26 tech stocks that Westeros Corporation had bought.

According to the exposed information, the scale of Simon Westeros' purchases was also very interesting.

From 26 stocks, ranging from Motorola, which still had a market value of over $5 billion after the stock market crash, to a newly listed company called Silicon Graphics (SG) with a market value of less than $200 million producing graphic workstations, including star tech stocks like Apple, Intel, Microsoft, and SUN, Westeros Corporation maintained a very subtle shareholding ratio of around 4.9% after completing its major purchases.

According to SEC regulations, an investor needs to report when they hold 5% of a company's stock, and subsequent buying and selling activities are strictly regulated.

4.9%, just below the SEC's reporting requirement.

Wall Street analysts therefore judged that Simon Westeros was not planning to hold these stocks for the long term. Since it was a short-term operation, following up needed no hesitation. Consequently, in just one day, the trading volume of the 26 stocks held by Westeros Corporation surged several times compared to the past.

After the market closed that afternoon, the average increase of these stocks was over 20%, with some even returning to their pre-crash peaks.

Simon had bought these stocks at their lowest points during the week of the stock market crash, and due to Westeros Corporation's major purchases stimulating the tech stock market, the value of these stocks had already risen by about 15% in the previous weeks.

Now, after today's significant rise, the book value of the tech stocks held by Westeros Corporation had approached $1.5 billion, meaning Simon had earned an additional $400 million in book profits in less than a month. Westeros Corporation's total assets, including all cash and stocks, had now exceeded $2 billion.

On Simon's side, after repeatedly confirming Simon's trading operations, the questioning process, and the period during which he was wiretapped, which all showed no improper conduct that could trigger an investigation, everyone started to busy themselves with the current media situation and discuss the potential investigations they

 might face.

As James Redfield predicted, the next morning, a spokesperson from the Southern District of New York's Federal Court publicly stated at a press conference that the FBI, the SEC, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and the prosecutor's office of the Southern District of New York Federal Court were investigating the improper operations by Lehman Brothers that led to huge losses for the Quantum Fund.

The spokesperson, when taking questions from reporters, somewhat implicitly confirmed that the prosecutor's office suspected Westeros Corporation might be involved.

Later, a local New York TV station revealed more explicit potential charges, revealing that an unnamed government official suspected Westeros Corporation of colluding with Lehman Brothers to manipulate the market on October 22, causing the S&P 500 index to plummet and causing massive losses to investors.

Simon never expected to be accused of such serious charges.

If the charges were proven, Simon not only faced huge fines, but all investors who suffered losses from the S&P 500's plunge on the morning of October 22 would have the right to sue him for compensation.

On that day, the S&P 500 index plummeted from the previous day's close of 256 points to 197 points, theoretically adding an extra loss of over $260 million to the Quantum Fund's 9000 long contracts alone.

The overall losses of investors on the Chicago futures market obviously far exceeded those of the Quantum Fund.

When facing countless investor claims, Simon could simply declare bankruptcy, and the enormous debts resulting from a potential lawsuit could cripple him financially for life.

Simon did remember information about the market plummet on October 22 due to Lehman Brothers' sell-off, which is why he arranged to sell the last batch of over 5000 short contracts that day. However, this incident clearly had nothing to do with Simon and was entirely due to Lehman Brothers' internal errors.

Pat Kinsley immediately denied the accusations connecting Simon to this incident, but the related narratives inevitably spread.

After Simon attended an inquiry by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Monday, and the following Friday, the SEC also initiated an inquiry with Simon. This time, the Redfields accompanied Simon to meet with SEC officials, again answering a series of questions about Westeros Corporation's stock transactions.

Inside the apartment on 68th Street, Upper East Side.

It was November 16, Monday.

Last night, New York finally saw its first snowfall of the winter. The film crew of "When Harry Met Sally" had been hoping for snow in New York to shoot some scenes, and the timing of this snowfall was just right.

In the morning, looking at the snowy Central Park outside the window, Simon inexplicably thought of "Dream of the Red Chamber" and the Grand View Garden. After eight o'clock, Jonathan and others came from their residences.

Before the Southern District of New York Federal Court and other institutions formally made their move, the past week had been anything but relaxing.

To prevent Simon from being prematurely judged guilty by the overwhelming media without even facing formal charges, everyone had been busy with media relations work, continuously clarifying and rebutting, even submitting legal letters to some newspapers, while also contacting other media to publish various news releases favorable to their side to protect Simon's personal reputation.

Reputation is something Simon inherently doesn't care about. But like many things in life, you might not care, but you can't afford not to maintain it.

If, like Michael Jackson who was forcibly labeled a pedophile by the media, Simon were to be forcefully branded a 'financial criminal,' anything he did thereafter could be tainted with a negative buffer.

Everyone sat around a large conference table in the living room, surrounded by newspapers, magazines, faxes, and even videotapes, analyzing the trend of yesterday's public opinion. Jennifer Redfield, who was responsible for answering calls, suddenly handed the phone to Simon, indicating that Noah Scott was calling.

After the outbreak of last week's incident, at James Redfield's suggestion, Simon had not contacted Lehman Brothers, and they had not communicated with Simon either. Hearing that Noah Scott was calling now, everyone's faces showed unusual expressions.

Noah Scott claimed on the phone that he was nearby and hoped to visit, to which Simon agreed.

A few minutes later.

Noah Scott hurried over, briefly greeted everyone, and then with a serious expression, hoped to talk to Simon alone. Under everyone's watchful eyes, Simon took Noah Scott to a still empty living room next door.

Standing by the living room window, Noah Scott raised his hand to wipe the condensation from the glass, looking out at the drifting snowflakes and the distant Central Park, he said, "Nice house."

Simon looked at the blurred windowpane and did not reach out to wipe it, nodding, "Yes, it's a pity it hasn't been decorated yet."

Noah Scott paused, unable to find another suitable topic for small talk, and directly said, "Simon, I have to be honest with you, the recent situation is very bad."

Simon turned his head

, but did not respond, just waiting for Noah Scott to continue speaking.

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